Monday, July 13, 2015

'Ray Donovan' Comes To Canoga Park

By Charlotte Rudnick, Quilt staff.

DATELINE: JORDAN AVENUE

The magic-makers of Hollywood came to Canoga Park this past weekend to shoot (record on film or on digital format) portions of a television program to be called “The Ray Donovan Show” which will be available for viewing to those who subscribe to the cable-television channel “Showtime.”

Residents near the filming on Jordan Avenue at Saticoy Street, in Canoga Park’s starstruck Jordicoy neighborhood were thrilled to play host to the myriad of oversized vehicles, generators, lights, production crew, off-duty policemen, various people wearing windbreakers and milling around with walkie-talkies, unpaid interns, overpaid Teamsters, craft service (food) workers, and even some actors, or cast members.

“I can’t believe it!” gushed Delany Lane resident Joan Mitnick, whose car had been towed to make room for a van delivering cupcakes to the crew. “To think, a TV show made right here in California! I’d heard everything was filmed in North Carolina these days!”

Hooray for Saticoy: Local street hosts a plethora of huge vehicles needed for the making of a television
program, including a fancy four-seat toilet trailer for stars who didn't want to make the trek to El Taco
Llama. At right, one of the filming notices taped to residences and currently going for $0.17 on eBay.

Nicholas Szalay, a location scout with Peppy Pictures — the company making, or producing, the show — noted, “We’re looking to Canoga Park more and more as a viable filming location. We want to help boost the local economy, especially since the West Valley lost almost all of the lucrative porn industry to Las Vegas after concerned voters decided professional performers voluntarily appearing in fantasy-based adult films must absolutely wear condoms.”

Says Jeanne Sowell, Studio Outreach Liaison with the Canoga Park Chamber of Commerce, “Canoga Park’s unique topography, culture, and overall vibe naturally lend itself to so many productions. Whether it’s a crime drama, a true-crime reenactment, a 'gangsta' rap video where someone gets shot, a crime thriller, a crime prevention PSA, a crime-themed ABC Afterschool Special, a TV movie based on a specific crime, a crime documentary, a gritty police procedural, or even a comedy with a significant amount of crime central to the plot, Canoga Park is fast becoming the first choice for on-location television and movie productions.”

A Substantial Gift: The title card for Showtime's "The Ray Donovan Hour," which recently filmed
part of the Season 3 episode "The Broken Promise" right here in Canoga Park. Cast & crew members
were each given a souvenir pushcart as a "thank you" for filming here by the Canoga Park Film Board.

For this weekend’s “Ray Donovan & Friends” filming, just a short scene was to be performed as the cameras "rolled" (recorded the action). Production went smoothly and finished, or wrapped, ahead of schedule.

“In the scene we [filmed], one of the characters fires a gun. And usually, with something like that, you have to make sure when people living nearby hear the gunshot, they don’t frantically start dialing 911 or come running out of their homes all freaked out,” says Szalay.“I guess that’s why we like Canoga Park —that’s never been a problem here.”